the riptide rhythm

Walrus Audio Red High-Gain Distortion

Overview

Walrus Audio unveiled at NAMM ‘17 their new distortion, “Red”. It’s a “take no prisioners”
non-transparent distortion. So if you want it to act as a clean boost, then this is not for you. It
contains an active EQ, volume, and gain controls, along with a “texture” switch as well as true-bypass. The
“texture” switch toggles between an uncompressed, overdrive-like sound and a more compressed, tightened sound.

The Pedal

I will say that this pedal is one of the best sounding distortions that I have ever heard. I like high-gain in my
distortion pedal but this adds a little sparkle that is hard to wrap my words around it but it is what makes this
pedal unique. It’s definitely nails the shoegaze sparkle from the 90’s rock so well.

Let’s talk about the active EQ. For rhythm players, you will want to turn the bass EQ up to get a good chugging sound.
Don’t go too high, you might make your bass player jealous. The mid EQ is when you want to stand out and cut through the
mix for all of your leads. Treb does exactly that, it will either cut your highs or are add more in. I am really
impressed with this EQ. Usually, I think they are done wrong, don’t like how they work. But this one is actually
impressive with how tight each EQ is.

Let’s talk about the bottom row of controls. Volume is a master volume (I wish everything had this.) Gain does what
you would expect with an exception. The gain all the way down is still distorted, it’s definitely less than if you were
to crank it up. But it’s still gonna melt your face off.

The texture switch is nice addition for the compression. Down is the highest level of compression, where up is the
highest (That seems backwards to me.) Completely, different sounds but I like that I can change it for lead vs rhythm
or if you just want to screw with your sound guy because volume change is very noticeable. You can’t go wrong adding a
phaser or a harmonic tremolo on top of this pedal as well.

Gripes

In this case, they are small and minor changes. If you know me, you will hear that I hate, HATE having the power input
on the sides. The one on the Red is less offensive than a MXR pedal because it is behind the output jack. My power
supply is in the back of my board but I still prefer it on top side of a pedal. The width of the pedal is a different
size. If you are strapped for space, then this might be an issue for you. I was able to drop it where my Suhr Riot
Reloaded was without any issues but I had an extra 10cm to the right of it because it was the first in my gains.

So let’s sum up what I would like to see in a V2 version. I would like the power supply move to the top like my
Iron Horse. I love how Walrus Audio does put the power supply slight inset so the plug
fits nice and snug. I would also like to see it in the same size enclosure as the Iron Horse as well.

Final Thoughts

This pedal is one that is staying on my board and replacing my Suhr Riot Reloaded. It gives a different, unique and
beautiful sounding distortion that works great for amps. I tend to use Orange amps most of the time, at least as my
default, go-to everyday amp. It played nicely with a single coil pickups as well as humbuckers though I
preferred the sound of the humbuckers.

Sound Clip

There has been no post production equalization. The only thing I added is a Digitech Polara Reverb in the signal chain
for depth. I also kept to simple power chords and a basic 8th strumming pattern because I want to give a raw sound
so that you can imagine what you can do.